Latest content: Governance and law

This report is a record of the proceedings of the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) for Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa held from 6 to 11 May 2024 at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel, Accra, Ghana, under the theme ‘Strengthening institutions and promoting transparency: A means of fighting corruption in Commonwealth Africa’.

The conference was convened by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) of Ghana, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).

This edition of the Commonwealth Cyber Journal brings to the forefront key issues that demand our collective attention and action. We are proud to present articles offering insights and practical approaches to protecting critical information infrastructure, an area of growing concern as essential services and national assets increasingly rely on interconnected systems. Lessons shared in this edition highlight the vulnerabilities of member countries and the innovative strategies being deployed to secure these vital sectors. As digital platforms become arenas for harassment, coercion, and harm, the need for a coordinated response rooted in human rights and gender-sensitive approaches becomes more paramount. The contributions in this issue challenge us to consider how cyber policies practices and guidelines may better protect the most vulnerable among us.

This report provides a summary of the findings and recommendations contained in the five regional reports Addressing the Role of Bystanders on Online Violence Against Women and Girls in the Commonwealth produced by the Secretariat in 2023.
The report presents the root causes and impacts of cyberviolence as being gender based, with a disproportionate impact on females where there is intersectionality of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, poverty, disability and other socioeconomic factors.

The Handbook on Designing and Implementing RIA Systems is intended to assist Commonwealth governments in designing and implementing programmes of Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) across multiple regulatory institutions. It identifies major risk factors that have led to failure of RIA programmes in other countries and suggests options that countries should consider to reduce the risks of failure. It is impossible to reduce risks to zero, but this Handbook will help increase the probability that RIA programmes will, in the end, improve the quality of government policies.